Retail sales volumes fell 0.8% last month

Retail sales volumes in the UK fell 0.8 per cent month-on-month in October, the biggest decrease since April, as consumers tightened their belts ahead of Christmas, according to figures released today.

Year-on-year estimates show a 0.6 per cent increase according to the Office for National Statistics while retail sales values rose 1.6 per cent compared with October 2011, though the shock monthly decline highlights the “renewed weakness of the high street”, an expert said.

Samuel Tombs, UK Economist at Capital Economics, said of the figures: “October‘s official retail sales figures support the timelier surveys in suggesting that the recovery on the high street is losing momentum ahead of the crucial Christmas shopping season.

“The decline in October gets the fourth quarter off to a very weak start.”

In the food store sector, volumes dropped 0.6 per cent, the biggest monthly drop since last November, and non-food sales volumes fell one per cent compared with a month earlier, though the latter saw some improvement compared with October 2011.

Non-food sales volumes jumped 1.3 per cent year-on-year though food continued to disappoint, down 0.7 per cent on last year.

During the four week period, the average weekly spend was £6.8 billion, up 1.5 per cent on October 2011 while the average weekly online spend jumped 11 per cent to £562 million.